John Allen’s updates to the site 12/2010-3/2011

March 13-22-25headsets.html – major updates including instructions on adjustment of threaded headsets; added exploded diagrams; resized photos and added a photo of a “brinelled” bearing race. More to come — photos of disassembly/reassembly.

March 12velos.html — added comments in favor of the Peugeot UO-8 frame.

Some of the newer cassette bodies attach differently to the Freehub. The splines are the same except for Dura-Ace with aluminum bodies, as described on the site. You need to use a spacer behind the cassette with some combinations (4.5 mm for 7-speed on8/9/10-speed bodies, 1 mm for 10-speed on 8 or 9-speed bodies).

Yesterday I converted a 145mm 8-speed Tandem wheel to 135mm 7-speed with the help of Sheldon’s information! I didn’t want to “dish” the wheel and make it weaker, so I installed the older 7-speed freewheel on one side and removed 5mm from the other side. This is where I ran into a problem not covered on any site that I could find: 7-speed freehub bodies don’t actually fit 8-speed freehubs, though the reverse is true. The source of this lack of internet knowledge appears to be that “everyone” wants to “upgrade” to eight.

I didn’t take pictures, but you obviously have the parts if pictures are needed. 8-speed freehub bodies have a chamfer on the side of the hub flange. 8-speed hubs have a matching chamfer in the recess. The non-chamferred edge of a 7-speed freehub body will contact the hub here.

I’ve seen on the net that some “clydes” have discussed the possibility of 7-speed backwards conversion, but none have followed through. I don’t want to get into how I “clearenced” the hub, but I will say that this should obviously be done on a lathe!

This could be good information for an update “why backwards doesn’t work” using freehub photos you already have.